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Advent-ure

Believe it or not, advent isn’t simply
a) the most stressful time of the year
b) the most chocolatey time of the year
c) the most drunken time of the year

It is actually the season of preparation for Christmas.

Some might say that all three of the above are wonderful preparation for Christmas because that’s essentially how you feel on Christmas Day – hungover, full to bursting with Quality Street and exploding with stress caused by your children/parents/partner/failure to deliver a perfectly cooked turkey (delete as appropriate).

But that’s not what Christmas is about, and that’s not what Advent is about. Advent a time for reflecting, for carving out moments of peace to explore what it means that at Christmas God is coming into the world. IT is a time for preparing your heart to meet God again.

Here are all the things which prevent me from meeting with God:-
Nappy changing
Searching for missing shoes
Washing school uniform
Cleaning
The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Washing school uniform
BBC News channel
Lunch
Washing school uniform
DRinking prosecco with good friends
Lewis
Worrying about whether I will ever live in a more attractive house
Working out what to do with our wretched VW passat after the Diesel scandal
Laziness
And the rest…

After this frank and now, that I look at it, rather boring list of distractions you may be wondering what my point is.

Every day life gets in the way of time with God like weeds climbing up and choking the life out of you – ooh didn’t somebody famous say something about that…? But it really is possible to create an Advent space to let a bit of God in, we just need a little help and an understanding of the way modern life encroaches into any sense of time owed to Him.

This Advent Pray as you Go has created a retreat that you can do on the bus, tube, in the car, in between the school run and the washing up. It focuses on the Magi and it creates a sense of journeying rather than stress, overeating and self-indulgence. It’s about an Advent-ure towards Christmas that should bring us to a quieter place and a sacred space, even if we still hang on to our committmen to Real Housewives of Atlanta.